Robben Island Townships

The tragic saga of “Forced Removals” then unfolds as we drive through the remains of the once vibrant District 6 and visit its living museum.  Then it’s off to the Townships, visiting examples of “black” and “coloured” townships focussing on development issues of Education, Health Care and Housing. In Langa we visit the Chris Hani Community School as well as the Tsoga Environmental Centre where local community guides take us on a walking tour.

We go via Bonteheuwel to Guguletu where we stop off at the Uncedo Pottery Project, and then to the Weltevreden Park Government Housing Development Site. We then return to the city for lunch at the Waterfront before departing on the ferry to Robben Island where ex-prisoners become our tour guides.  We are taken on a walking and driving tour of this political prison where Nelson Mandela was jailed for 19 years. Lunch @ the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront – a region that abounds with shops, pubs, restaurants and entertainment.

After lunch, the guest will departing on the ferry to Robben Island where ex-prisoners become our tour guides.  We are taken on a walking and driving tour of this political prison where Nelson Mandela was jailed for 19 years. In 1961 the Prisons Department took over and built an austere maximum-security prison. It was here that Nelson Mandela was sent after receiving a life imprisonment sentence in 1963. Political and common-law prisoners were initially lodged together. Contact with the outside world was limited to receiving and sending two letters a year. In 1971 the political prisoners were further isolated. Beatings, hard physical labour in the lime quarry, prolonged solitary confinement and insufficient food, bedding and clothing were endured for many years. Hunger strikes, legal action and international pressure eventually brought better conditions. The prison even became an informal university behind bars, with prisoners tutoring their warders. 1991 saw the release of the remaining political detainees and in 1996 the common-law prisoners were transferred to the mainland.